HRM Johnny
Well-Known Member
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this! ^^^^^^^^^
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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Dentite ; It has to do with doing control work and not using your calls that you will need for the hard to get educated coyotes. Some sounds need to be kept in reserve for those coyotes that are killing livestock in your area and that makes your job easier. But in general, the coyotes respond better when I use the sounds that are being made in nature at that time of the year. I have had to go out after well trained coyotes that others had taught about the puppy sounds so they would just set down at long distances and look in your direction, in the spring of the year that were killing lambs because they had a den full of puppies. I don't like to use sounds such as fawn blats in December because it's not the sounds being made in nature at that time of the year and a lot of the coyotes will be more cautious coming to it just for that reason. Yes, you will get some coyotes that respond well to it. It's the same with the puppy sounds, you will have some coyotes that charge right into those sounds any time of the year, but I like to be able to somewhat control the coyote's response, I want them on my terms not theirs, coming from the direction that I chose mostly, at a good pace, and be able to stop them close to where I can make a standing shot instead of a running shot . It's not only about choosing sounds that match the time of the year but also knowing how much to use those sounds, when to use more and less volume, when to stop making sounds, how to use your sounds directionally and taking the time to somewhat get them to respond the way that you want them to respond. Yes, it is an adrenalin rush to have a coyote charge in at breakneck speed, but it's just as much of an adrenalin rush to be able to kind of control them then take your shot and hit them knowing that you were able to get them to react the way you wanted them to. In the end it's about doing what you want to and how you want to for your good and not making your life harder or the guy that has to do it to stop the killing of livestock or is trying to make a living raising livestock, or keeping some more wildlife alive by trying to do better at what we like to do. Not one thing is cut in stone with wildlife there are some generalities. I find it interesting when people say that they have coyotes that won't respond to calling, and are hanging up out beyond shooting range, but I also find it interesting when people don't really know how many coyotes are in their areas that they don't know aren't even showing any interest in the sounds they are putting out there. So then for me I like to make my life easier when I can, and it just might be selfish on my part to ask others to use their sounds in a manner that would be of some help to me in the end or perhaps I also might be trying to help others at the same time to make their life easier as well.
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
When I'm talking about calling, hunting, trapping, snaring coyotes the vast majority of things, I talk about are because I made a mistake and had to correct it by figuring out the hard way it was a mistake and I had to then find a way to kill the coyote or coyotes or someone else told me about making the mistake and so I then tried not make it. Or I got asked to solve a problem from someone else making a mistake that they probably didn't even know they had made. Or they really didn't think much about it most times it was just a coyote that got away, or they didn't even know they had called in. It's a different world for a person that has to kill the problem animal then it is for the person that is a recreational coyote hunter, caller, trapper or snares person. Do your best to be your best, I worked with and learned from some very good control people, and I worked with some that left some to be desired and others had to continually clean up their mess they made, some that tried to learn and some that didn't. People are people no matter where you go in the world, the ratio of butt holes will remain constant everybody has one some just smell bad. Sorry I just couldn't resist kind of like when I froze a coyote in a standing position and wired it to the fence by one of the ranchers driveway that I worked for, yup he shot it so did his brother and ranch hand, he called me and asked why would you do that then laughed and told me about him getting his brother and the hired hand both to shoot it at different times after he had and found it to be frozen and wired to stand up. he said that his brother and the hand had both driven past it a couple of times and not seen it. You just have to have some fun sometimes as long as everyone can laugh it's called fun. If one person can't laugh, it's not fun.
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
I love it, Dave. I am going to do that next year. Giggle, giggle.
Great info, thanks so much for the reply.
There is so much to do with control work that the average person doesn't even need to consider. When you get a call that lambs are being killed you want to check the lambs and make sure it was a coyote kill, skin the neck and see how large the canine teeth were, how far apart they are spaced, I then walked in a widening circle around them checking for tracks. That starts to give me an idea of where the attack started and then I can start to figure out what direction they came from to kill them. It's hard to kill a specific animal if you don't know where that animal is! Yes, I can call in air support go out and kill a bunch of coyotes and hope that I got the offending animal or animals, but I have seen where that didn't work with animals that, laid down, hid or ran for cover at the sound of a helicopter or plane flying low and slow. So then tracking tells me better where I need to focus my efforts, hit the trails find the tracks, move out a distance look for tracks, as with people their feet aren't all the same, see if I can find where they crawled under a fence set up snares there and other places in that fence line. After time spent doing it you get a feel for where you want to look as they tend to use areas that are similar from place to place. Then you also need to look at the time of the year why are they killing, is it to feed pups, are they old and not in good health, in the winter, fall, or early spring are they just leaving home and getting out on their own, the tracks will help you figure out if you are dealing with young, adult, male, female or a combination of the above. I put a lot of miles on my feet learned to travel light, a rifle, hand calls and some water OZ'S equal LB'S equal PAIN. The time of the year and the animal or animals doing the killing tells you what calls you will try first then you're tracking and the number of tracks, directions of the tracks coming and going ect. start to tell you how close to the animal you are. that's what tells you when to set up to call. You left your truck a little after sunup now it's noon, so you can figure that both mom and dad are home if you're out in the spring and figure you have a pair with pups, or you did your foot work yesterday and it got late before you found out what you needed to know mostly, and you came back this morning to let the coyotes tell you exactly where they are and if they have pups that want to do a sunrise serenade. So now I know where they are and I don't want to be too close to the den but not too far from it either, I choose my stand location so now what sound do I want to use, myself I want just a long lone howl then wait for several minutes to see if mom and dad answer and show up on a hill then start my way to tell me to get out of their area. If that doesn't do it then I want to change it up just a little two medium length howls, two barks and another medium howl, set still and wait just observing the country, are they setting on a hill just looking my way, are they coming my way silently slipping along in some low places till they get close to me then laying down to see what I am going to do am I going to go to their home and mess with their pups, am I just out exploring a new area ect. . Did I mess up and get too close to the den so then they run out away from the den and start to bark and do short sharp howls and decoy me away from it. That's the tip of the iceberg for the number of things that the person doing control work needs to think about and learn about which the average person doesn't need to know when they are out doing their thing and having a fun day of calling coyotes.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Well, now I'm hooked on this thread with all of your stories and the knowledge that you share. I'm currently on page 23 of your 'book', learning everything I can from your experiences. I got started in long range shooting over a year ago after selling our sawmill business, and now I love wandering the hills hunting coyotes. My preference is looking for opportunities to practice my long range shooting skills, rather than the fast and furious action of calling them in close. I do enjoy calling them but am not very good at it. I've got our surviving locals pretty call-shy, so I quit calling here. I've taken 14 in our valley, mostly over 500 yards with the longest so far being 1052. I'm 59 and never really hunted coyotes before, just shot them as opportunity presented itself, so now this is a new adventure learning 'coyote'. Now I'm trying to learn to read sign and call intelligently to locate them and get them to show themselves for a shot without just educating them. This picture is from one of my favorite 'sniper' lookouts. There's a dead coyote at the bottom of the triangle snowbank at 528 yards that I stopped with a female howl while I got set up for the shot.
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and stories!
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and stories!
Dave , as you know I don't get on here much , but I sure enjoy your stories , they parallel so many things I had done over many years it really gets me laughing, growing up on a ranch is a real educational time in peoples life's , you learn so much about life the eco systems, and in a lot of cases a real work ethic , the frozen coyote got me thinking about the time I had a dead rattle snake laying in the floor of the pu , this has to be 50 years ago , I picked up somebody that was broke down , it was hot as blazes , we are driving along he asked if we could turn the A/C on , I said sure roll the windows down , he said it's hot out there , I said yep that's why I said roll the window down that's the only AC this truck has , I think the truck was a 1955 or close to it , we were talking for a bit , it didn't take much for me to figure out he wasn't from where we lived , he's getting pretty comfortable he didn't pay much attention until is that rattlesnake lay there in the floor a friend of yours , did he get in when you. Did , he started shaking like a leaf and was standing in the seat in about a second , he failed to see the humor I did , he got out at the first place we came to in town , I pulled that frozen coyote trick on my kids as they were growing up , is't fun getting old some times
windypants
Well-Known Member
Sure enjoy your stories--keep 'em coming!
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Windy, you can't put that picture of your rifle in and not tell us about the rifle and load you used.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Glad to--I love that rifle! It's a Wheeler 30-28N shooting 230 OTM Bergers @3125fps. 87.9gr N570, F215's, ADG brass. Terminus Zeus, 28" #13 Bartlein 9tw .280 freebore, McM GW, Maven RS-4. It'll shoot repeatable 3.5" groups at 1077 yards.
